Krabi

This is a somewhat unusual post, in that the pictures you see are not on my Flickr site yet.. hence there's no link associated with the title. The trip itself was a little unusual as I booked the tickets way back at the beginning of the year once I knew that my leave was approved... so what's the significance of this holiday?? Well.. we wanted to get away during my birthday... sort of a 'birthday holiday'.

So we went... took a flight directly to Krabi and a relatively short cab ride to the other side of the island where the resort was situated. We weren't really planning on going anywhere.. kind of a similar deal to the Phuket holiday we did last year.. but decided to keep our options open. In the end, we did just the one excursion, to Phi Phi Island and spent the rest of the trip basically at the resort or at the nearby surrounds. We did venture to Aonang Beach on the 30th to check out a restaurant but it was closed. Nevertheless we did have a good dinner at another place in town.

Overall, it was a nice, short trip but our sunburnt lips was a painful lesson on how too much fun in the sun can hurt!

M@cAlfie

Pictures, top to bottom...

1. Tiger Airways Airbus... our ride to Krabi and back,
2. Waiting for a taxi in the resort lobby... going for my BD dinner!
3. Posing on the boat enroute to Phi Phi,
4. The surprise cake...
5. Tubkaak Resort by night.

Kyoto Holiday

Its been a while since I've posted anything new and I won't be surprised if anyone thought I'd given up the idea of documenting my travels. Here's my long overdue entry...

We went to Kyoto for a week, from 26th April to 2nd June. Instead of the play by play (or day by day) account of what we did, I have decided to do the whole trip in one (hopefully not too big) post, so here goes...

We arrived in Kyoto City by coach from the airport and could not check-in so we went looking for Mei Lan's SOKA association HQ and also our first meal together in Japan. We found the association's building without much problem and were warmly welcomed and given a tour by one of the helpers there. Then it was chow time. Ordering food, as we discovered throughout the trip was an interesting experience. After a good meal and much needed rest we headed out in the evening to 'explore' the town... and more food! Took the bus.. that took some effort but we were to learn later that their public transport system is really excellent.. efficient and most importantly.. punctual. There wasn't really anything on our agenda so we meandered around the little streets looking at what was on offer... we did chance upon a small temple in the middle of the shopping street where I took a few photographs. As we were planning an early start the following day, we headed back to the hotel after dinner.

Over the next 4 days we went to the 4 corners of the city visiting all the various landmarks, namely the Golden and Silver Pavilions, the various gardens, shrines and temples including Kiyomizu-dera, a temple that was recently featured in our local newspapers. There were also a few accidental excursions, most notably on the last day in the city... We initially thought of visiting just the Fushimi Inari Shrine to the south-east, which is famous for the long rows of red "Torii". After we finished we thought it would be a waste to just chill for the rest of the day so we took out the map and elected to visit the Arashiyama district... for no other apparent reason than it looked interesting on the map! It turned out to be a very rewarding trip as we spent the whole afternoon chilling in a very scenic location and eventually decided to stay and catch the sunset and have dinner as well.

Which brings me to the food. We loved it and the experience acquiring it. Its not like we're new to the cuisine but the process of getting it was really very exciting. Two of the most enjoyable dinners we had were chance finds.. just walking into a quaint little restaurant, smiling and ultimately allowing the chef and his assistant to prepare the dishes. Many of the dishes served we had never seen before but watching the whole process of how it was prepared as just added to the enjoyment of consumption. One of the night's after dinner we were at the Gion district and ended up chasing a Geisha to have pictures taken with her.

On the second last morning we set off for the Kurama district, about an hour north of the city by train to experience staying at a Japanese bath house. THAT was a very interesting adventure, especially since there are quite a number of 'rules' to follow so you don't offend the locals. Ultimately, it was a very enjoyable stay and I would like go stay at one of these Ryokans again..

Alas... like all our holidays, this one seemed to end too soon, but I'm sure that it won't be the last time we visit Japan...

The photos, from bottom-up are:

1. Mei Lan outside the SOKA building,
2. Posing in front of the Silver Pavilion,
3. Kiyomizu-Dera,
4. The Golden Pavilion
5. Dusk as seen from the Arashiyama District

Stay tuned...

Californian Beaches

Another of my marathon walks.... got into LA ahead of schedule and when I saw the clear skies I felt rejuvented... so instead of crashing out for a couple of hours I decided to get my gear and head out to the beach. I was initially planning to take the bus.. but as things usually go.. I walked.. as usual. Initially it was kind of boring as there really wasn't much to see but as I got neared to the beach area things started improving. Honestly I didn't really have a clue were I was going to end up cos I didn't really bother to check the map. All I knew was I wasn't that far (yeah right!) and it was due West. Fortunately I met a nice guy who enthsiastically gave me some good advice and I ended up walking along Hermosa and Manhattan beaches.

After walking for almost 5 hours I finally found a spot to set up and wait for the sunset and also watch the locals run or blade by the boardwalk. I decided to take a cab back to the hotel after the shoot and it was only then that I realised how far I had really walked and why my feet were killing me! Needless to say I had a really good night's sleep!

Naritasan Shinshoki Temple

Lucky me. It initially started out as a rather bleak day... light rain, a little foggy and also a little cold. Not exactly weather conditions that will get someone to jump out of bed and go take photos... fortunately it cleared later in the morning and i managed to go take some pictures at the temple. Sadly some of the buildings are being refurbished or restored so I couldn't capture all the buildings in their full splendour but it was nevertheless a beautiful compound.. much larger than I expected.

Cherry Blossoms

Howdy... am currently on my way to LA via Narita. Got here early this morning and after catching up on some much needed sleep, decided to venture out (finally) to this 'big' shopping area called AEON. Supposedly... there's this camera shop (what else) that might have some good deals on lenses and stuff.. so armed with some sketchy directions.. I headed out to explore.

Needless to say.. I never found the shop. At least I don't think I did cos the description of the shop and the directions given made it hard to tell as I did find some joint which was actually a large electronic store with a small section selling cameras... but nothing interesting enough to tickle my fancy or wallet.

Instead.. in the aimless wanderings I spotted this area where the Cherry Blossom trees were in full bloom and the breeze was causing the petals to fly all over the place. Obviously I didn't need a second invitation, whipped out the camera and started shooting.

I'm off to LA tomorrow evening but am hoping to wake up early enough to take a walk to a nearby temple to shoot some pictures as well as tire myself out so I can get some sleep before work. Then it's off for a relative short (hopefully... fingers and toes crossed) hop across the Pacific to LA where I'm hoping to practice some sunset shots and also other landscape captures at Redondo Beach as part of my 'work-up-training" for the upcoming BIG holiday :-) Again... the recent reports of the weather there are not exactly encouraging but I'm hopeful.. as ever...

Catch you later.

M@cAlfie

Frankfurt

Everytime I visit one of these destinations where we start 'sharing' with our sister aircraft type I find myself wondering if I'll be back anytime soon. There wasn't really enough time for a photoshoot excursion to one of the neighbouring towns so I restricted myself to the city and brought the little P&S instead of the 'horse'. Here are just some samples of the photos I took. By now you should know where to find the rest :-)

One of the highlights for me was finding the cherry blossoms... in full bloom.

Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath

Well, that's also the name of the tour I took to go take a look at three places outside of London on my recent trip there. Wasn't too confident about driving around alone and I also wanted the advantage of some background information which I was led to believe would be rather insightful. It was a good tip.

So the day began early enough.. scoffed down a BIG meal for breakfast in anticipation of the lack of eating opportunities later in the day. Especially so since I was going to be spending time taking photographs once we were 'let loose' by the tour guide.

First stop was Windsor Castle.... one of the British Royal Family's other homes. HM was in but i didn't catch a glimpse of her! Not too bad digs.

Stonehenge was kind of the highlight for me cos the weather was fantastic, though very windy. Only had about 45 minutes on the ground to shoot so I didn't really waste much time. Fortunately, the guide did most of the talking on the bus ride there so we could just get on with it when we got there. From all the pictures I had seen earlier, I thought it was by the seaside, standing on a cliff of some sort... Nevertheless, I was just amazed at the sheer effort that would have been involved all those years ago.

Bath was kind of luke-warm for me (no pun intended). Perhaps due to the limited amount of time that we could spend there. I definitely want to go back for a proper visit as I probably only saw 5% of what the city has to offer.

I hope you like the pics here and if you do, you can go see more of them on my Flickr site. Just click the title.. as usual.

M@cAlfie

San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge

Just before the CNY escapade in HKG I was in SF. When I saw this trip on my roster I was determined to cycle across the bridge and take a picture of it from the other side (North) of the bay. After monitoring the weather (mainly the temperature) for the previous few days I ascertained that this task would be possible. Little did I know until I met another set of crew while on the way up that I was indeed fortunate as it had been raining quite heavily the previous few days.

On the day in question, it was bright and sunny and after breakfast at my usual joint I rented a bike, strapped my gear down and headed out. It wasn't the easiest of bike rides getting up to the bridge level but was well worth the effort. Managed to find a few nice spots along the way to take photos of the bridge in addition to the intended location, Vista Point.

To top it off, I "discovered" the town of Sausalito, where I took the ferry back to Fishermans Wharf. Looked interesting enough to warrant another visit back... perhaps next time I'll just take the ferry there!

Lunar New Year in Hong Kong

Was in Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year holiday weekend and went with Mei Lan to the temple on Lantau Island to observe how the locals celebrate the New Year. Was an interesting trip, well planned by ML. We took the MTR from Causeway Bay to the last station Tung Chung and from there took the scenic cable car ride all the way up the mountain to the temple area. Along the way the scenery was really beautiful, but slightly marred by the fact that it was very hazy.

We had a vegetarian meal at the temple (which is supposedly for good luck) before ascending a small hill to the vantage point where the buddha (bottom picture) sits.

That night we went across the harbour to Kowloon to take pictures of the Hong Kong skyline. Again.. if not for the hazy conditions it would have turned out much better.

GXFC!!!

M@cAlfie

Chinese New Year 2007

Chinese New Year is almost upon us again and as usual I won't be around for the hoopla.. but I'm not complaining. Took the opportunity of an off day to go down to Chinatown to take pictures of the lights (boring) and the street vendors selling the more traditional stuff. Was fortunate to have gone down early in the season as it gets really crazy and crowded closer to the main event. Managed to capture a few nice shots which you can see on my flickr site by clicking the blue title above.

Overall it was just an okay excursion as the crowds just got to me... kind of reminded me why I prefer landscape and architechtural photography... you tend to want less people around. Also, I managed to try out a new processing software that i downloaded for a short trial.. seems to take a lot of hard work out of post-processing.. might be my next acquisition!

Stay tuned!

Last Tango in Paris

Yeah.. I know, a cheesey title for the post.. but.... I realised when the roster came out that this would be my last 'free' chance to see Paris for awhile as my fleet stops flying here end 2006. Any future trips will be on holidays.. Oh.. BTW this trip was done I think in November 06, just took a long time to get the photos edited especially with the 'busy' Christmas season.

All these photos were snapped in one afternoon, as i walked from the hotel all the way to Notre Dame where I finally stopped for a meal at a Subway's outlet. Ended up talking to an American exchange student working there part time while completing his Aeronautical Degree.

I thought I was quite lucky as the weather was almost perfect the whole afternoon and only started to worsen after I had finished shooting. Didn't realise how far I had walked until I took the train back to the hotel.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. I think this also closes out most if not all the pictures and trips taken in 2006. Hopefully 07 will give me the opportunity to make some more nice photographs. In the mean time, I've also been trying to improve my Photoshopping skills with the hope that I can salvage more shots that may have gone awry. Also with some really important photo trips/ holidays planned this year.. i really hope to take this hobby to the next level.

Cheers,

Roger
aka
M@cAlfie